Professor Sohn began to build his collection as a young man. His fascination with international relations was, no doubt, fueled in part by the grim experiences of his own family in Europe at war. The first step toward averting such tragedy as world war must surely be to understand its origins, and that is what Professor Sohn set out to do. In the course of building his own understanding, he added immeasurably to ours, through his work at the United Nations, through his published scholarship, and through his years of teaching.
Ownership of Professor Sohn's collection only recently was transferred to the University of Georgia Law Library, but the collection has been housed here ever since he "retired". (I put "retired" in quotes because Louis Sohn has never really retired; he just left Harvard to work at Georgia, then he left Georgia to work at George Washington; I bet George Washington is wondering where he will work when he "retires" from there!) But I digress.
Whenever Mr. Sohn came to teach a mini-course here, he always wanted to see how his collection was holding up, so we'd go visit it. He would walk along the shelves, caressing the books, occasionally picking one off apparently at random to tell me what it said, though it must have been many years since he last read it. One day when we were visiting his collection Professor Sohn picked a book off the shelf -- it may have been a book on religion or geography or language, all I remember was it was not a book on law -- and he said with his trademark mischievous grin, "You notice I define international law very broadly." And then he went on to describe the foundational concept of his collection building: whenever he observed a situation anywhere in the world that appeared likely to have an impact on international relations, he began collecting as much information as he could find on that area. He collected books on history, philosophy, religion, demographics, customs, economics, geography, language, and, of course, law. As a result of this extraordinary effort, a researcher can assemble a full, three-dimensional picture of the conditions that prevailed as the situation developed. And that is why it is called a collection on international relations, not a collection on international law.
The Louis B. Sohn Collection is a living collection. The law librarians will continue to select a broad spectrum of new monographic literature, using the criteria Professor Sohn himself used to develop the original collection. Therefore, his gift is one that will reach far into the future, encouraging his academic successors to take account of the complex tapestry of factors that influence international issues, just as Professor Sohn has done all these years.
Nimmer and Geller, International Copyright Law and Practice
Call # K1420.5 I54
(multi-volume looseleaf set)
Kremenyuk, International Negotiation: Analysis, Approaches,
Issues
Call # JX1635 I58 1991
Restatement of the Law, Second, Torts (volume 2, copy 9)
Call # KF 1249 .A4 R472 v.2 c.9
UNBIS Plus on CD-ROM contains the primary bibliographic database of the United Nations and serves as an index to UN documents, related non-UN documents, proceedings, speeches, voting records and agendas. In addition, UNBIS contains full text of resolutions adopted by the General Assembly, Economic & Social Council, Security Council, and Trusteeship Council, plus a database of document series symbols, name authorities and an English-French-Spanish thesaurus of topical and geographic terms used in UNBIS files. This CD-ROM has been installed on Public Access terminal #1 near the reference desk.
BNA's Labor and Employment Law Library on CD-ROM should prove helpful in researching labor and employment law.The set is an electronic version of BNA's Labor Relations Reporter and includes reference manuals, cases, news/analysis, and finding aids. This CD-ROM is available on Public Access terminal #2 near the reference desk.
The Interactive Courtroom is a multimedia video simulation. Each action-packed digitized video simulation is conducted in real time, so you feel the pressures and pace of a courtroom appearance, and anxiously await the judge's ruling on objection. You hear the explanations and rules of evidence used to support the ruling, learn from experts what you're doing effectively and ineffectively, and receive a customized evaluation at the end of the session. Admissibility of critical evidence rides on your answers, and testimony shifts accordingly. You can become familiar with subtleties like courtroom demeanor and effective framing of questions, before participating in an actual trial.
I highly recommend this CD-ROM series particularly for students who wish to concentrate on evidence, client counseling and courtroom skills.
The following lessons are available:
Direct Examination: Evidence and Tactics
Represent the plaintiff in a civil trial. Make objections and move to strike objectionable
evidence during defense counsel's direct examination of her principal witness.
Cross-Examination: Evidence and Tactics
Represent the defendant in a civil trial while he is being cross-examined by plaintiff's
counsel. Learn techniques for making objections and moving to strike objectionable evidence
while polishing your knowledge of the rules of evidence.
You Be the Judge
Preside over a civil trial and sustain or overrule the attorney's evidentiary objections. Then
suggest other sustainable objections that the attorneys did not raise.
Client Interviewing
Watch as an attorney interviews a prospective client, and identify her ineffective interviewing
techniques. Then replay these scenes to see the attorney use a more effective approach.
Be Prepared! For your Deposition
Prepare for a civil deposition.
The federal government is the largest publisher in the world. It publishes books, periodicals, reports, newsletters, maps, congressional documents, hearings and much more. The government provides free copies of many documents to selected libraries across the country as part of its Library Depository Program. The UGA Law Library is a depository library and selects approximately 15% of the materials (those relating to law) available through the program. The Main Library at UGA is a regional depository. As such, it is supposed to receive one copy of all the documents distributed through the depository Program.
In the Law Library, frequently-used government documents are shelved in the main collection and are cataloged by the Library of Congress classification system, which arranges material by subject. These documents can be easily located by using the online catalog, GAVEL. Additional documents are shelved on the first floor of the Annex by Superintendent of Documents number ("SuDoc"). This system arranges the material by the issuing agency rather than by subject. The Law Library also receives a large number of documents on microfiche, located on the first floor of the Annex in the microfiche cabinets by the staircase.
One of the easiest ways to access the gov docs is to use the CD-ROM index called AUTOGRAPHICS. This index is networked and can be accessed from a number of Law Library computers. Autographics allows the patron to search by author, title, subject and key word, making accessing the documents a breeze. If you need help, please do not hesitate to ask a librarian.
Government documents have now established a rather formidable presence on the World Wide Web. Almost every agency has its own webpage (e.g., DOJ, CIA, FBI, IRS). Two of the most popular are THOMAS (http://thomas.loc.gov), which includes bill summaries and status files as well as full texts of legislation, and GPO ACCESS (http://www.access.gpo.gov), which has federal administrative, statutory and regulatory materials.
The wealth of information both in paper and on-line should not be overlooked when doing research. Please do not hesitate to ask us for help in locating this material.
Anne Burnett, Editor
UGA Law Library
Athens GA 30606
e-mail: aburnett@uga.cc.uga.edu